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Joel McHale in a horror film does seem like a major left turn for the 42-year-old comedian-actor.

But he’d like to point out he does have some street cred in his role as a dangerous but wise-cracking Bronx cop investigating demonic possession in the just opened Deliver Us From Evil, from writer-director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister).

“I had my own knife collection at home – way before I knew Scott,” said the Rome-born, Seattle-raised McHale to reporters, adding he got his first blade as a gift from his father at age five.

“And I still collect them. I am not joking. I probably have 50 knives... Everyone was like, ‘Was it hard going from comedy to drama?’ No! My greatest concern was whether I looked like a real cop, whether I was the size of a real cop and did I look like I knew what was I was doing with knives?”

In the movie, McHale’s character, Butler, provides some much needed comic relief as he rides alongside his partner Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), whose tense dealings with evil are based on the 2001 book, Beware the Night, written by the real-life cop-turned-demonologist.

“My whole thing was to antagonize people,” said McHale, the host of E!’s The Soup and the just-saved-from-cancellation Community (moving from NBC to Yahoo! for a sixth season).

“And I think Gallows humour was very important for the movie because it is a very heavy subject and Scott’s a very funny guy. He wrote all that stuff. I think the Gallows humour of cops is very real.”

Turns out too McHale is “close friends” with Derrickson so the role was tailor made for him.

“I was with him when he first read the book and then started doing ride-alongs with Sarchie. So it’s been, boy, a decade. But then like three years ago he said, ‘I’m writing a role not for you but of you in that I’m writing this character as if you, yourself, had decided not to go into entertainment but to go into law enforcement and be slightly less crazy than you are.’ And I went, ‘Thank you so much Scott.’ And it didn’t mean I got the role. He had to convince the studio and I had to convince the studio. I don’t have a movie currency. I was in (the 2012 comedy) Ted... I (auditioned) twice because the first time they said it was too funny.”

McHale also says Butler, an ex-Army Ranger, is way more serious than audiences may go into the movie theatre believing.

“My character’s not from New York,” said McHale. “He joined the force just so he could see more action. He prefers fighting and killing and stabbing. I’m not kidding.”

McHale worked out for a two hours a day and did three weeks of Filipino knife fighting – “They call it a martial art but it’s really a good way to murder people” – to prepare for the role.

As for Community’s move from cable to online (which occurred after this interview), McHale mused at the time: “An unencumbered (creator-writer) Dan Harmon writing episodes for the Internet will be ‘Hold onto your hats!' ‘Cause those will be some incredible Community episodes.”